26 HAMPSHIRE DAYS 



to save it, as they said ; but I advised them not to 

 attempt such a thing, but rather to spare the bird. 

 To spare it the misery they would inflict on it by 

 attempting to fill its parents' place. They had, so 

 far, never kept a caged bird, nor a pet bird, and had 

 no desire to keep one ; all they desired to do in this 

 case was to save the little outcast from death to 

 rear it till it was able to fly away and take care of 

 itself. That was a difficult, a well-nigh impossible 

 task. The bird, at this early stage, required to be 

 fed at short intervals for about sixteen hours each 

 day on a peculiar kind of food, suited to its delicate 

 stomach chiefly small caterpillars found in the her- 

 bage ; and it also needed a sufficient amount by day 

 and night of that animal warmth which only the 

 parent bird could properly supply. They, not being 

 robins, would give it unsuitable food, feed it at im- 

 proper times, and not keep it at the right temperature, 

 with the almost certain result that after lingering a 

 few days it would die in their hands. But if by giving 

 a great deal of time and much care they should suc- 

 ceed in rearing it, their foundling would start his 

 independent life so handicapped, weakened in consti- 

 tution by an indoor artificial bringing up, without the 

 training which all young birds receive from their 

 parents after quitting the nest, that it would be im- 

 possible for him to save himself. If by chance he 

 should survive until August, he would then be set 

 upon and killed by one of the adult robins already 

 in possession of the ground. Now, when a bird at 



